Bottle capper



Get. 24, 1933- w. w. WEAVER ET AL BOTTLE GAPPER Filed Nov. 19 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 24, 1933. w. w. WEAVER ET AL BOTTLE CAPPER Filed Nov. 19, 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 I 72/770; @M Z. M W

Oct. 24, 1933. w. w. WEAVER ET AL BOTTLE CAPPER Filed NOV. 19 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 developed with this gripping bottle necks of '20 Patented Oct. 24, 1933 BOTTLE oAPPEIt Mahlon A mplication November 19, 1930" 7 4 'Serial No. 496,774

Claims. (01. 226-84) This invention relates to bottle-capping devices particularly designed for domestic or homeuse in connection with domestic or home In such home or domestic bottling it is found a convenience to arrange the empty bottles in a commercial bottle case, fill them, and then cap them in the case, and our invention has been fact particularly in viw.

Our invention has for its primary objects to provide a portable capping device of the type which, as held by the operator,is supported solely by the bottle being capped'and in which the bottle-gripping jaws and the cap-applying hood are disposed well below the lowestplane of the operating levers; *to provide a capper having slightly resilient bottle-gripping jaws which will grip small bottle necks firrnly and yet which in slightly greater-diameter securely grip said bottle necks withoutcrushing them or interfering with the completion of the capping operation; to provide a portable hand bottle capper having bottlemay spring or yield to gripping jaws and a cap-applying hood in combination with means for causing swinging movement of said jaws in one plane and endwise movement of said cap in a planeat right angles thereto, said jawsand hood extending down well below the said means for-"application about and to the upper end-of one of an'umber of bottles as disposed in such a case, while allowing ample clearance between the topsof all of the adjacent bottles in said case and saidmeans for the full operation or movement of thelatter necessary to the completion of the cappingoperation; to provide in such a tool having opposed swinging bottlegripping jaws means for equalizing the 'force'ap plied to, and the degree of movement of, said jaws determined a point respectivelyfto provide definite means or stops for preventing the swinging movement of the gripping jaws toward each other beyond apreto avoid crushing the, bottle being capped; to provide means for properly centering the cap hood in the initial stage of applicatorrto the'bottle; to provide means for centering the hood throughout all positions of the parts; to provide in such a device a pair of pivotally connected levers pivotally connected to said jaws respectively in combination with means limiting the pswinging movement of levers towardeach other to prevent possible pinching of the operators hands between said levers, and to provide such a tool capable of construction entirely from sheet metal by simple sheet metal stamping and assembling operations which peculiarly lends bottling of grape juice, cider, various soft drinks, pickles, etc.

itself to large'quantity sheet 'metalflproduction er t n V s 1 1 n In this application we show and describe only several of the more,'at pres'ent,pre f erred embodi' ments of our invention simply'by way'of illustration of the'practice of our invention, asby law required. However, we are mindful of the fact that our invention'dscapable of afnumber of other and different embodiments? and that the several details thereof may be'modifiedin' various ways; all without departing from our said invention, Therefore, the drawings and description herein are to be considered as merely illustrative and not as exclusive. r

In the accompanying drawings: 1

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a capper embodying our invention about to be applied to the top of a bottle;

Figure 2, a view similar to Fig. 1 with the parts in their intermediate stage of application'at the point where the inward swinging movement of the gripping jaws hasbeen practically completed and just prior to'the finaldo'wnward thrust of the hood to apply the bottle cap; I

Figure 3', a view'similar to Fig. 2 with the parts in their final position after comple'tionbf the capping operation; Figure l, a top plan view illustrating the use of the capper in connection with bottles in a case;

Figure 5, a sectional view on line- 5+5 of Fig. 4, looking in the direction of the arrows, being'shown in full inper'spective to v the capper illustrate the clearance' between the operative levers off the capper and the adjacent bottles in' the case even-after the completion of the capping operation.

Figure capper with the parts in thefposition illustrated in Fig. 1, the ends of the levers being broken away;

Figure 7, an end elevation of F the parts in the position illustrated 'i' thelevers being broken away; v

Figure 8, a central vertical sectional view taken on line 8-8-of'Fig. 1; v Figure'9, a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 1 of amodification; V, v

Figure 10, a sectional-view, on line;'10- 10 of Fig}? v Figure 11, a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 9 of a further modification; and j *Figure 12, a sectional view on the line 12-12 of Fig; 11 looking in theidirection of the arrows. Referring now in detail to the'drawings, 1 desthe" capper with when STATES PATENT; Omar-i,

6, an enlarged perspective view ofthe ignates the plates frames which serve of a pair of yoke plates or to maintain the desired operative relationship between the other parts of the capper. Said plates 1 each have a long vertical slot 2 and preferably have their lower portions approximately from the lower ends of their respective slots laterally spread or offset to accommodate between said plates 1 the wider portions of the stirrup-shape jaw members 4 which are pivotally mounted on and connected to the respective plates 1 by means of headed pivot pins 3, each of said jaws 4 thus serving as a connecting element between the plates 1 to thus connect said plates 1 together.

The jaws 4 will preferably be connected to each of the plates 1 by pivot pins 3 at points equidistant, or approximately equidistant, from the longitudinal central line of said slots 2 of the respective plates 1 as illustrated.

A pair of operating levers 11 and 12, preferably having their outer ends of loop form and their shanks or bodies of two spaced plates, and preferably with said plates disposed in interleaved relation, have their lower end portions preferably interleaved with, and pivotally connected to, the upper end portions of the jaws 4 by means of pins 5.

A vertically extending preferably elongated U-shape thrust bar or post '6 has the hood 8 mounted thereon by means of the rivet 9 or any other usual and suitable means or method of attachment or may be welded thereto, and has its sides or legs disposed upward preferably parallel to each other and preferably straddling the interleaved levers 11 and 12.

While it is not essential that the thrust bar or post 6 shall straddle the levers 11 and 12, or that said levers 11 and 12 shall be interleaved with each other or with the ends of their respective jaws 4, this construction is preferred. 7 In any event the levers 11 and 12 are to be pivotally or otherwise connected together in such manner that their movement toward and from each other will cause equal swinging movement of the jaws 4 about their pivots 3 toward and from each other, and the said levers 11 and 12 are to be so related to the thrust bar or post 6 and to at least one plate o other part functioning similarly to plates 1 as to cause relative endwise movement between said plate 1 and thrust bar or post 6 as the levers are swung toward and from each other.

A construction whereby the foregoing relative movements may be obtained is shown in the several embodiments illustrated wherein a pin 10 having its end portions respectively disposed in the respective slots 2 of the respective plates 1 and having its extreme end portions upset or spread to engage the outer faces of the respective plates 1 passes through the legs of the thrust bar 6 and through the interleaved plates of the levers 11 and 12 disposed between said thrust bar legs 6 at a point equidistant from the axes of the pivot pins 5, so slidably and pivotally connecting said levers 11 and 12 and the thrust bar 6 with the plates 1 and pivotally connecting said levers 11 and 12 with each other and with the thrust bar 6.

Each plate 1 will preferably be formed with two guide lugs 'I bent or presented inwardly at right angles from its side edges adjacent the lower end of its slot 2 and so spaced and presented as to slidably engage with the adjacent edge face of the adjacent leg of the thrust bar 6, and so serving to center said thrust bar 6 and. the hood.

8 carried thereby with relation to the plates 1, and hence with relation to the jaws at all times.

The jaws 4 will have their opposed lower transverse bar edge faces notched out in registry to define between them when closed an opening to receive the neck of the bottle being capped. Said jaws 4 will preferably be of relatively heavy resilient or springy sheet metal so that they may spring or yield without being deformed when gripping bottle necks of slightly greater diameter than usual or which may have some slight imperfection, it being recognized that there will be some variations, within a limited range, in the diameter of the necks of bottles to be capped.

The capping hood 8 will be of usual construction with a cushioning element, such as a pad of rubber 13, disposed in the upper part of its interior so as to be interposed between a bottle cap A and the opposed face of said hood 8 to cushion the thrust of the latter in the final capping operation. I

Also a cap-retaining spring device 14 will preferably be provided for said hood, said device 14 being, in the embodiment illustrated, a U- shape resilient member or spring straddling the hood 8, secured between the same and the thrust bar 6 by the rivet 9, and having legs extending below the lower edge of the hood 8 and having inwardly presented outwardly curved extreme lower end portions extending below the lower edge of said hood 8 and adapted to be forced apart by a cap A during the insertion thereof in the hood 8 and to snap inward toward each other as the lower edge of the cap A is moved upward so as to extend slightly inward over the edge of said cap A and thus retain it in the hood 8 preparatory to application to a bottle.

The levers l1 and 12 will preferably have their lower end portions slightly downwardly offset as illustrated so as to conveniently space the handles 11 and 12 from each other when they have been swung upward to their extremeupward positions, thus giving more room for conveniently gripping and holding said levers 11 and 12 as moved to and from such position without risk of the operators hands being pinched or bruised. However, this risk is small and,- while the offset construction is preferred, it is not essential.

In operation, the levers 1'1 and 12 are moved so as to move all parts tothe position shown in Fig. 1 wherein shoulders 4 of jaws 4 strike opposite edge faces of thrust bar 6, thus preventing further movement of the levers 11 and 12 toward each other, a cap A is inserted in the hood 8, said cap first spreading the legs of the holder 14 and then being held by the same in hood 8, all as illustrated in Fig. 8.

The cap A as held in hood 8 is then fitted on the top of a bottle B extending upward between the jaws '4, when the levers 11 and 12 are swung downward, causing the plates 1 to move upward, and the jaws 4 to move upward toward the hood 8 and 'to simultaneously swing inward toward each other until they firmly grip between them the bottle neck B as the end of the swinging movement of said jaws 4 is reached, as illustrated in Fig. 2. V

Continued movement of the levers 11 and 12 thereafter results in a slight downward final capping movement of the thrust bar 6 with its hood 8 as illustrated in Fig. 3, at which time the lower edges of the levers l1 and 12 strike against the shou ders 4' and 4 of jaws 4, effectively preventtive pivot pins 3' essential that they should be made connected to the upper end ing further spreading movement of s'aidlevers 11 and 12. I p

Obviously, since, as illustrated'in- Figs. 3' and 5, all portions of the gripping jaws 4 lie below the plane of the portions of the handles normally gripped by the operator, the tool may be employed to cap bottlesin a case without obstruction by, or injury from, adjacent bottles in the same case. In the modification illustrated'in Figs. 9 and 10 the construction and operation are the same as in the preferred form except that-instead of the guidelugs '7 integral with the plates '1, plates '7' having inwardly presented guiding lugs bent up along the'edges of the respective plates 1' are secured respectively to plates 1' by rivets or any other suitable means.

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 11 and 12 the construction and operation are the same as in the preferred form except that only one plate 1 with its slot 2 receiving pin 10 is used, and instead of the guide lugs 7 the staggered outer ends 4' and i of the respective jaws 4 engaging the adjacent edges of the respective legs of the thrust bar 6 serve to center the same with its hood 8 in the extreme upper position of the levers 11 and 12; that is, in the initial position of all parts of the tool preparatory to applying a cap A to a bottle B, the thrust bar 6 being otherwise unguided throughout the capping operation and I being maintained in centered position by the bo tle B as gripped between the jaws 4 after the downward movement of the levers 11 and 12 has begun. In this said modification, instead of using two plates 1 with slots 2, one said plate 1 sufiices for guiding the pin 10 and equalizing the movement of the jaws 4; which, however, will have their opposite side tied together by a lint; 1 having its respective end'portions pivotally connected to said jaws 1 by pivot pins 3', the respecand the respective pivot pins 3 having common axes.

In all embodiments all elements, excepting the rivets and pivot pins, are so designed and con-' structed as to be capable of production by sheet metal stamping operations, as illustrated.

Also, the levers 11 and 12 are formed with rounded edges to avoid sharp corners or cutting edges and may well be formed from suitable lengths of metal strap that'is available on the market in varying widths and with smoothlyv rounded edges.

Said levers 11 and 12 are preferably made of loop form to give awide hand grip, but it is not of loop form, or that they should be interleaved, or that there should be two distinct levers extending beyond the point of their pivotal connection by the pivot pin 10.

We claim:

1. A bottle capper comprising a pair of plates, a pair of jaws pivotally connected intermediate their end portions to said plates, a cap-hood, and a thrust bar carrying said hood, in combination with a pair of operating levers pivotally portions of said jaws, and a transve se element pivotally and slidably connecting said levers and thrust bar to said plates and pivotally connecting said levers to said thrust bar and to each other at a point equidistant from the points of pivotal connection between said levers and said jaws respectively. 2. A bottle capper comprising a pair of rigid plates, a pair of jaws disposed between said plates, each of said jaws being pivotally connected intermediate its upper and lower ends to each of said pivotally connecting said 3 plates, a cap-hoodand a thrust bar carrying said hood, in combination with leverspivotally connected tocorresponding end portions of the respective jaws at points equidistant from the respective axes of said jaws,

and a transverse element pivotally-and slidably connecting said leversand thrust bar to said plates and pivotally connecting said levers to said thrust bar and to each other at a point equidistant from the points of pivotal connection between said levers and said jaws respectively.

3. A bottle capper comprising a pair of rigid plates, a pair of jaws disposed between said plates, each of said jaws being pivotally connected intermediate its upper and lower ends to each of said plates, a cap-hood, in combination with a pair of operating levers pivotally connected to the respective jaws in spaced relation to the points of pivotal mounting of the respective jaws, means for pivotally and slidably connecting said levers to said plates and for pivotally connecting said levers together at a. point equidistant from their respective points of pivotal connection to the respective jaws, a thrust bar pivotally associated with said levers and adapted to be moved thereby in a direction at right angles to the swinging movement thereof, and means for guiding such movement of said thrust bar.

4. A bottle capper comprising a vertically slotted plate, a pair of jaws, pivot pins having their axes intersected by a single plane and disposed in spaced parallel relation and respectively jaws to said plate, in combination with levers respectively connected to said jaws in spaced relation to and equidistant from the respective pivot pins and in a single. plane parallel to said above mentioned plane, rigid means pivotally connecting said levers to each other and having a portion slidably disposed in said slot, and cap applying means adapted to receive a thrust from said rigid means.

5. A bottle capper comprising a vertically slotted plate, a pair of jaws, means pivotally connecting said jaws to said plate in corresponding side portions of said jaws, and means for pivotally' connecting the other side portions of said jaws to each other, in combination with levers respectively connected to said jaws, means pivotally connecting said levers to each other and having a portion slidably disposed in said slot, and cap applying means adapted to receive a thrust from said means.

6. A bottle capper comprising a vertically slotted plate, a pair of jaws, means pivotally mounting said jaws on said plate, a thrust bar carrying cap applying means, and means for properly initially centering said thrust bar, in combination with levers rspectively connected to said jaws, and means pivotally connecting said levers to each other and having a portion slidably disposed in said slot.

A bottle capper comprising a vertically slotted plate, a pair of jaws, means pivotally a'pair of operating mounting said jaws on said plate, a thrust bar portion slidably dismeans, and means forguiding 59 ed in said slot, and means for limiting the ement of said levers toward eac 10. A bottle capper comprising slotted plate, a pair mounting said jaws on sai carrying cap applying means, an ing the movement of said thrust bar, tion with lever jaws, means pi each other and in said slot, and means of said levers tow ust bar, in combination onnected to said. jaws, g said levers to each slidably disposed in the movement of said thr with levers respectively 0 means pivotally connectin other and having a portion said slot, and means for limiting the of said levers toward each othe 9. A bottle capper comprisi slotted plate, a mounting said jaws on said ap applying means, and mea movement of said thrust bar, in comth levers respectively connected to said jaws, means pivotall to each other and a vertically of jaws, means pi d plate, a thrust bar d means for guidin combinated to said ing said levers to ng a vertically means pivotally plate, a thrust bar pair of jaws, s respectively connec votally connect having a portion slidably disposed for limiting the movement from each other. WARREN W. WEAVER.

MAHLON E. PATTON.

bination wi ard and away y connecting said levers having a portion sli 

